Episode:Religion in Depth—Reality of Experience (Part 7)
The highest attainable philosophy of mortal man must be logically based on the reason of science, the faith of religion, and the truth insight afforded by revelation. Science must always be grounded in reason; religion is forever dependent on faith; and revelation is indispensable to the construction of a logical philosophy of the universe.
Keywords: Urantia, Religion, Philosophy, Science, Salvation
Summary by Kermit
Commentary on Review
We noted how the revelators gave the Greeks a tip of the hat for their groundbreaking efforts in establishing the foundations of philosophic thinking. But they also reminded us of the Sumerians as precursors to the Greeks’ contributions making a link with earlier Andite influence, suggesting a genetic connection to civilizing behaviors.
We then indulged in an extensive elaboration of the appearance versus reality dilemma, failure of which to recognize by modern man has and continues to lead us in troublous paths concerning the validity and quality of our science and religion. As was articulated, the problem goes beyond the simple fact that our apprehension of reality is attained, conditioned, qualified, and colored by the representations of reality in the mind. The solution for this present predicament lies in the cultivation and development of our use of the three cosmic intuitions given us by grace. These gifts enable us to experience a reality response (revelation)—the recognition of the reality we cannot observe, to know that which we cannot see! Inasmuch as we are creatures and not creators we will ever depend upon the gifts of the creators to effectively transcend the “appearance-reality divide.”
We even dissected the notion of experience with its two constitutive elements, the active and questioning self and an active and external reality. It is the reality response, insight, rather than sight that allows the individual to contextualize appearances and interpret experiences. Lastly we touched on the element of auto-revelation and the assistance rendered by the Spirit of Truth in reforming the mind to match the mindal forms initiated by the indwelling spirit. And forget not that the ability of personality to wield mind potentiality both creatively and destructively. Consult the archive of this broadcast for more details.
103:6.11
Continuing in our reading, the revelators continue to reiterate the dynamics of the two approaches of discovering the nature of reality, science and religion. These endeavors are mutually reinforced; the reason of science is augmented by imagination and conjecture and the faith of religion is stabilized by reason. However, man’s abortive attempts at metaphysics to reconcile and harmonize these two fundamentally different approaches has given rise to misleading interpretations of both science and religion resulting in false versions of both. It is best in starting this quest for truth, that we assume our science and religion are false, if not severely incomplete and courageously, cooperatively subordinate our worldview to the cosmos for the instruction and growth we earnestly seek.
Here we are invited to recognize the 5th ER as the genuine metaphysics that has eluded mankind for 2,500 years. Our job is to cultivate and develop our cosmic intuitions, and seek revelatory guidance on how and when to focus these insights. Herein is the revelation of the bridge between the worlds of matter and spirit—morontia. The 5th ER is the only technique whereby we can have access to the conceptual data necessary for constructing a logical philosophy of the universe AND simultaneously arrive at a satisfying understanding of our sure and settled place in that universe.
We returned to our hemispherical visualizations from the previous week, this time using triangles and ellipses, the specifics of which I will not attempt to summarize. I would suggest that interested students of the revelation consult the archive and get out paper and pencil and draw along for maximum comprehension. Suffice it to say, the revelation can become a genuine metaphysics only when the student is able to exchange old worldviews for the enhanced views of revelation instead of rationalizing the revelation into the old worldview. Let’s put this new wine into some new wineskins, like a personal living philosophy!
We are told that without mota mortal man cannot conceive and construct a logical universe, nor can he discern goodness, love, and truth in the phenomena of the material world. Here the distinctions between the existential and experiential approach to goodness, love, and truth are briefly discussed. The appreciation of the truths of existential eternity is not sufficient to render the pilgrim useful to his fellows. It is only the application of the truths of experiential eternity that make the individual more valuable to others.
The penultimate paragraph of the section briefly exposes the three predominant philosophical distortions that follow from the imbalance and overemphasis of each one of the three elements making up man’s attempt at a logical view of the universe. The naturalistic, idealistic, and skeptical flavors of human philosophy are derived from the overemphasis of scientific reason, religious faith, and man made metaphysics respectively. They end the paragraph with the curious sentence “Philosophy dare not project its interpretations of reality in the linear fashion of logic; it must never fail to reckon with the elliptic symmetry of reality and with the essential curvature of all relation concepts.” Listen again to the archive for an elegant explanation of the meaning of the phrase “essential curvature of all concepts”, and have your pencil and paper ready.
The final paragraph reiterates again: “The highest attainable philosophy of mortal man must be logically based on the reason of science, the faith of religion, and the truth insight afforded by revelation. By this union man can compensate somewhat for his failure to develop an adequate metaphysics and for his inability to comprehend the mota of the morontia.”
103:7. Science and Religion
We read the first three paragraphs of this section in the final twelve minutes of the broadcast. Reiterating the modes of validation for science, religion, philosophy—reason, faith and logic respectively, it is faith instructed by revelation that provides the initiating spark which when elevated by mortal experience with the indwelling spiritual presence that IS the mustard seed for earnestly beginning the Paradise journey.
The path and sequence of true salvation is the technique of divine evolution. Mortal mind initially identified with matter ascends through the morontial realms to genuine spiritual correlation. Is not Salvington, where we achieve true spirit status, and become infused with the Adjuster presence derived from the word salvation?
Finally we read that our activities and efforts in cultivating an understanding of the energy of the material cosmos ever persists, until we understand their unification in the emerging Deity of the Supreme Being.
